Saturday, October 25, 2008

Saturday's Unity Festival put on by the CHAC (Corporation for History, Arts & Culture) & local businesses had many activities for the community.

This family-friendly event brought music, dance, and lots of good times to 5th Street, just around the corner from the Historic Core. The massive line-up of entertainment included: skateboarding, various bands, gospel & blues singing groups, dramatic readings from Dramastage Qumran, and much more.

Here's just a sampling from the set of photos I took this afternoon:The Rockafarians sang Reggae, blues & some Cajun too!

I got a backlog of fun to post about including SEVERAL food reviews and a book signing.

I used to go to book signings a lot (what with working at a big chain Book Store it was part of the gig). Back on October 15th, I took the bus to the Grove over in Fairfax, had dinner at the Farmers Market. I then caught a fine book reading by Sarah Vowell from her new book The Wordy Shipmates.

The Wordy Shipmates is about the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and their political and cultural influence in today's society. Sarah Vowell brings insightful and quirky observations in her study. As Sarah Vowell does, she goes off on a few relative, but fun tangents the reader will enjoy.

There was seating set up for 80+ but there was considerable standing room only (and despite our getting there in plenty of time for the reading, we were part of the 'standing room only') SeanYoda was with me and had made a point to purchase his copy of the book beforehand.

Pre-purchasing is always a good idea, as those with books already purchased in hand got in line first (row by row then the standing folks such as ourselves in the back) and had their moment to get their copy signed.

Here SeanYoda gets his copy of The Wordy Shipmates signed.

Sarah Vowell was recently on David Letterman as well Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show." Tomorrow the 26th of October you can see her on C-SPAN's BookTV (10pm Eastern).

Her booktour continues through Atlanta, GA and Austin, TX.. Sarah Vowell book tour

Monday, October 20, 2008

I've been taking a break from posting stuff because things are going on at a personal level. Along with moving out of my place at the Continental (downsizing to a small office across the street) and what that entails, I had a personal emergency. I awoke a couple days back to find Alexander, my "occi-tabby" (he's a tabby but has spots and a wild nature that reflects his former feral status) going to the litter box several times with little to no results.

I immediately recalled my cat Tigger who I had for some 11 years before I lost her. She too had these problems evacuating and at the time I was ignorant of the importance of these warning signs. Cats are susceptible to urethra blockage where crystals will form in their urine and block their urethral tubes. Male cats especially are susceptible to this. Having lost a cat to this medical problem through ignorance on my part, I never want anything like this to happen to any animal in my care ever again.

Cats who have this problem can die of kidney failure within days if left untreated. No one knows what causes this problem but usually it's less likely if you feed your pets special food. We have in the past fed the cats Science Diet Indoor formula which the cats both like. When the melamine scare occurred we were fortunate, but eventually did switch the cats' food to Trader Joe's canned cat food and Nutro Max Complete Cat Indoor Formula. This was so that we'd be more likely to order local if need be. We live downtown after all, and so saving gas and buying locally from one of the downtown pet food providers seemed like something we wanted to pursue.

So back to Alexander and his frequent Litter Robot visits: I kept an eye on him but then had to take care of something and then left Sean to watch him. After doing some online research and observing Alexander he agreed with me something was off. A neighbor referred us to the VCA in Arroyo Parkway who wasn't able to take Alexander but suggested we keep calling around til someone said yes. It is that important!

Immediately I put him in his carrier and we drove over to be seen as a walk-in emergency (non-critical). Alexander is a sweetheart (those who've met him) with a mean streak.. and going to the vet his most vicious nature comes out.. No one at the vet would imagine this little guy was the same fuzzy fellow that prefers to eat out my hand, walks around on his hind legs like a meerkat, wakes me up at 630am without fail and gets very upset if his cat-mom is out of view and LOVES playing hide & pounce with his big sister Kiki. He was frightened & mad.

Alexander Bunny at a random "calm" moment at the Vet.

So saying all this we were very fortunate to get him into one of these little acrylic boxes so they could anesthetize him and run tests without him ripping their arms off in the best cat impression of a German Shepherd in K-9 mode.

Alexander has a shoe fetish & loves chewing on a random sandal.

We left him to be poked & tested and had lunch at a local place in SoPas and when we were called back it turns out we had one lucky cat. While his tubes aren't blocked, he does have crystals (our vet said after performing a feline ultrasound the inside of his bladder looked "like a snow globe" after gently rocking him on the examination table).

He was given a shot of penicillin and prescribed some liquid antibiotics to take orally 2x daily. Along with this we were advised to change his diet to the Science Diet C/D which is for lower urinary tract health. While we haven't been able to shoot the medicine in his mouth we were given permission to stick it in his food, so I'm doing that and hoping that he'll see some relief soon. It's only been one & a half days, so there's about 14days til we need to take him back in. The last couple days have been overwhelming but the food seems to be going over well with Alexander (Kiki doesn't like it!) which does a lot to relieve the stress of giving the medicine. He's settled down a lot and that will do a lot for him to recover, I think.

Anyone who has cats need to be sensitive to what you're feeding them, especially male cats. I know first-hand what happens if you ignore or mis-diagnose these things. (cats who eliminate outside the litterbox aren't naughty, it could be stress or something new or like with Alexander a very dangerous health problem).

Monday, October 13, 2008

With about three weeks left til the 2008 Presidential election, one must muster a sense of humor.

If the following was a real campaign ad, I imagine it would be called "Republicans for Obama." Posted on Youtube, someone thought to splice together many of our concerns with an actual speech by former President Reagan, who seems to imply an endorsement of Senator (D)IL. Barack Obama for the Presidency. Despite the seriousness of the topic, having Reagan's words from his 1980 speech describe our country's situation put a little smile to my face & hopefully yours.

"Ronald Reagan endorses Barack Obama" posted by DontBeFooledAgain.

Also please remember the 3rd Presidential Debate is this Wednesday evening the 15th.

**DISCLAIMER: for the record I'm registered "declined to state" and yes, I'm voting Obama/Biden.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Having a run at the Aero Theatre, "LA Plays Itself" is back, this time at the Egyptian Theatre, for one night only, Sunday the 12th of October.

From the American Cinematheque website:

"LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF, 2003, 169 min. Dir. Thom Andersen. A must see for Los Angeles history buffs and cinema enthusiasts, who will marvel at the hundreds of archival and film clips revealing an almost secret history of the City of Angels..."

If film isn't your thing, there's always hockey. The LA Kings have their home opener Sunday night. They're looking for the home ice advantage to avenge tonight's 3-1 road loss to the San Jose Sharks. It looks like tickets are sold out for the opener. However, there are certain to be some available somewhere no doubt for a little more than they originally were purchased for. Stub Hub anyone?

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Haven't updated in a bit but I've been spending some time meandering in one way or another.

Last Saturday was BlogDowntown's 2nd Annual "ShootDowntown" meet. A couple dozen or so avid photographers met up at Arda's Cafe to shoot the breeze then shoot around town. shootdowntown 2 (my flickr set)Sunday was the weekly bike meander, which I gave about 10min before deciding it was the smallest meander ever. A bike meander of one. Still, it got me up and about and out to the Arts district where I took some photos before heading back to home base in Old Bank District.

Monday found me a little under the weather but I managed to get out for a little bit yesterday in the beautiful sun before heading back in to catch that 2nd debate between Sen. Barack Obama & John McCain. I think it would have been cool if someone had a neighborhood meetup for the last debate. Who knows? Maybe it'll happen.

Until then, there's the 1st Anniversary of the downtown dogwalk in Pershing Square tonight at around 6pm. Another event to look forward to tomorrow: the Monthly Downtown Art Walk. So despite all the economic upheaval, some things continue on. You can count on Art Walk every month and people will always be wanting to meander, whether on bike, by foot or with their trusty dog by their side. Cheesy yes, yet true.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Tonight is the much anticipated Vice Presidential debate between (D)Sen Joe Biden and (R)Gov Sarah Palin. There was to be a last minute opportunity to view the debate. It had been posted recently on downtown bulletin board groups NewDowntown & Downtown LA Life, respectively. Unbeknown to me, there were no follow-up approval made, so I went to the location where I found it had been canceled.

Instead,"The Exchange" (or DLANC HQ as most of us may know it) will be host to some pro-Obama phone banks every Saturday and Sunday from 1-4pm. Also every Monday at Morona Kiang Gallery from 5-8pm 218 W 3rd Street in the Bradbury Building. You will need to bring your own phone with you to participate, as "The Exchange" does not currently have a DSL or phone line.

Phone banks are not my thing, but may be yours. Hope you enjoy the debate wherever you watch it.